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Television

Author:

Cathy Nugent

Paul Mason was on the Daily Politics (BBC2 12 noon) today.

He said, “I have never been to a Momentum meeting”. Then went on to have a lot to say about it. Specifically, “If Jill Mountford [National Committee member of Momentum] is not allowed into the Labour Party and I cannot see her being… and remains basically an expelled member of the Party and remains in Momentum I will not remain in Momentum.”

Author:

Cathy Nugent

On BBC Question Time (Labour leadership debate, 8 September) Owen Smith, in the stream-of-consciousness style that has come to typify Smith's approach to political debate, links the Alliance for Workers' Liberty (as part of the “hard left in our Party” “flooding into the Party”) to those on the left who “associate anti-Zionism, anti-imperialism”, “anti-Israel” perspectives (sic). That is, he implicitly called us anti-semitic.

This incoherent tirade against the “hard left” was a disgraceful intervention into an important issue that deserves serious, well-informed debate.

Owen Smith misrepresents "left anti-semitism" and smears AWL's record on this issue.

Issues and Campaigns:

Author:

Luke Hardy

People think they know what to expect from a Ken Loach type of film. It’s about working class struggle, collectively or as individuals. It’s political. It uses non-professional actors, alongside professional ones. It will be naturalistic and eschew studio filming or flashy effects. The welcome BBC documentary ‘Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach’ reminds us there is more to Loach.

Culture and Reviews:

Author:

Daniel Randall

Daniel Randall reviews The Night Manager (BBC, 2016)

The Night Manager has a good go at being right on. The opening episode drops us right in the middle of Tahrir Square, days before the fall of Mubarak. Tom Hiddleston's Jonathan Pine, a dashing ex-soldier working as the eponymous night manager in a luxury Cairo hotel, is first motivated to go after Hugh Laurie's dastardly arms dealer Richard Roper because he's worried the weapons he's selling might be used to put down the uprising.

Daniel Randall reviews 'The Night Manager' (BBC, 2016).

Culture and Reviews:

Author:

Les Hearn

Followers of Nordic noir will have been enjoying this new treat on BBC4. It has the typical features of the flawed policeman confronted with gruesome murders; but a dominant character in the drama, sometimes it seems the dominant character, is nature.

Culture and Reviews:

Author:

Cathy Nugent

The Newport rising of November 1839, when a few thousand men from the south Wales valleys, many of them armed, marched in protest at working-conditions and for the right to vote, was the subject of a recent BBC documentary presented by actor Michael Sheen.

Publications:

Author:

Vijay Jackson

Bitter Lake is a highly unconventional documentary, in equal parts haunting, chilling and moving. Like some of Adam Curtis’ earlier pieces, narration is kept to a minimum — quite fitting, considering the touching meta-narrative it tells. At over two hours long, it is like falling down the rabbit hole.

Publications:

Author:

If you didn’t see The Super Rich and Us, I would really recommend you look at it on i-player.

The first episode covered Britain’s property market and tax laws. The second focused on the growth of international financial markets.

Presenter Jacques Peretti begins each episode with these stark observations: “The super rich are taking over. 85 people now own the same as half the world’s population. Never before has money been so polarised. The 21st century will be the most unequal in human history.”